Superman must reconcile his alien Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as reporter Clark Kent. As the embodiment of truth, justice and the human way he soon finds himself in a world that views these as old-fashioned. (from IMDb)

Let's be honest, here. The DC Comics cinematic universe (AKA the DCU, formerly known as the DCEU) has long been a hot mess. Warner Bros. seemingly saw the success of Marvel's Avengers in 2012 and decided they wanted their own piece of the pie -- without earning it. They followed the moderately successful 2013 Superman reboot, Man of Steel, with plans to make a Justice League movie, and began rushing the assembly of their universe. Marvel had launched their MCU with 2008's Iron Man and slowly built the groundwork for establishing their Avengers team movie by movie before finally uniting them in 2012. DC decided the best course of action was to hint at the team in the hot mess of a movie they called 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and then just dump their introductions into the intensely troubled production of 2017's Justice League. Since then, we've seen some sequels and uninspired attempts at cashing in on new DC character solo movies, but the DCEU was ailing from the word "go."

In late 2022, it was announced that DC had hired Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy director James Gunn to head the creation of an entirely new DCU. He soon announced that the flagship DCU entry for the reboot would be a Superman movie, titled Superman: Legacy. Fans hoped to see Henry Cavill don the cape again, but his dismissal from the franchise was soon announced. Now, nearly three years later, the retitled film is here, now simply dubbed Superman. Little-known actor David Corenswet, who had a small role in last year's blockbuster Twisters, takes the helm as the new man of steel. I definitely questioned the casting, but I'm aware I've been pleasantly surprised before. Thankfully, after seeing his performance in Superman, I can say I think he was right for the part. Upon hearing Rachel Brosnahan would be Lois Lane, I was stoked at that casting choice. Her role as Midge Maisel in Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel had her proving to have some solid Lois Lane traits, and I couldn't have imagined better casting. On the other hand, I definitely wouldn't have imagined Nicholas Holt for the role of Lex Luthor, but he proved to not only be up to the task, but embody the kind of Lex fans know from the comics.

If there's any problem with James Gunn's Superman, it's that it's a lot of movie. Gunn is trying to establish a new DC Comics cinematic universe here - which he's been carefully mapping out ahead of time (unlike the world Zack Snyder was trying to build previously) - so there's a heck of a lot that this movie is trying to accomplish. At least, with other Superman movies - including Man of Steel - they're just focusing on the main character and his world. Here, we're quite literally dropped into an existing cinematic universe. We all know the story of Superman, so the movie starts moments after Superman lost his first fight ever. If you've seen the footage of a bloodied Superman landing in the arctic and then making his way to the Fortress of Solitude with the help of the super dog, Krypto, then you have seen how the movie actually opens. The opening's introductory text establishes that Kal-El has been Superman for 3 years before the movie opens, so there's a lot of Corenswet's Superman we haven't seen. In this version, he and Lois are already an item, and she knows Clark Kent is Superman. It gets some of the secret identity tropes out of the way, and it helps dismiss the need for those kinds of dramatic side plots. Sure, there's relationship tension between the two, but it's evident that Gunn has no desire to explore previously-tread story ideas. And, considering what this movie is trying to accomplish, I think I'm okay with that.

Because Gunn is establishing a new DC world here, which already features other superheroes, we end up meeting "The Justice Gang," which consists of Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific and HawkGirl. Honestly, I could care less about these characters (even though Nathan Fillion plays Green Lantern here, and I've been a fan of his since his show Castle); this is a Superman movie, after all. But Gunn makes them a likeable bunch, and their scrappy nature does add a bit to the movie. In retrospect, it feels like it's a good example of the movie having "too much" in it, but these characters end up serving the plot well, and each one of them gets a moment to shine in the movie. (Mr. Terrific even gets a Yondu-style action scene that is a little too close to something we've seen in Guardians of the Galaxy, but it is juuuust different enough in its execution to warrant a pass. But still, it was typical Gunn in the way he handled it.)

I enjoyed almost all of Gunn's approaches to Superman and his story (he actually wrote the movie in addition to directing it), but a couple things didn't really land too well for me. Without spoiling anything, the way he handled Superman's Kryptonian parents is a disappointment. It serves the story well, and even the theme of Superman trying to fit in on Earth, but it's a dark twist and one that's really hard to believe. (Frankly, it doesn't make enough sense to fully buy into.) Then there's an overlong action sequence where Supes is trying to save an alien baby from some kind of dimensional energy river (or whatever) and it's a bit cringy. It felt like it was included just to have another action sequence, but it's really pretty bizarre and ends up just looking like a messy blur of colors. (I saw the movie in IMAX 3D, so I'm sure that didn't really help... but in a movie that does tend to try to ground Superman at times, it also gets super silly and hokey at other times.)

When Superman gets some action moments to shine in, he really does. His heart is very much on his sleeve, and it's not hard at all to love this Superman. He's charming, lighthearted, smart, but sometimes a bit naive - and it's endearing. The varied score from David Fleming & John Murphy only helps, too, and the fact they work John Williams' absolutely iconic theme into the score only makes it stronger. There's a lot of emotion in this Superman story, and Gunn and company do a great job infusing it.

The content for Superman is what you'd expect from Gunn, sadly. His Guardians movies are pretty edgy at times - either with language, violence, or sensual content - and all of that is here as well. He keeps the violence not too graphic, but it definitely can be intense. The profanity is surprising at times, too, with a pretty broad selection of different cuss words, with 9 uses of the "S" word leading the pack, a very loud and emphatic use of "J-sus Chr-st" from Jimmy Olsen, and other words and phrases. We also see text messages on Jimmy's phone briefly that show the middle finger emoji, and then during an action scene, we see Green Lantern make a large hand displaying the middle finger with his green energy powers. There is a lot of action violence, with the most intense sequence involving Lex Luthor playing Russian roulette with an innocent victim (That's where you load one bullet into a six-shooter pistol and spin the chamber so you don't know where the bullet is when you pull the trigger). We see from a distance the gun go off and the victim fall over, having been shot in the head. It's a jarring moment in the movie and arguably the darkest one as well. As far as graphic content, we see Superman beaten and bloodied in the opening scene, drooling blood onto the snow from his mouth. Another character is later shown with quite a few bloodied cuts all over their face and head as well. And when Kryptonite makes Superman sick at one point, his face is kind of gross and deformed. Lastly, there's a brief moment shown in slow motion when Superman punches a thug in the face and two teeth fly out of his mouth and bounce off the screen. There isn't any overt sexual content, but there are some immodestly dressed women (including one of the workers at the Daily Planet), Jimmy gives an ex-girlfriend the nickname "Mutant Toes" but tells her she had other nice parts of her body, and Green Lantern defensively tells Lois that hundreds of women would disagree that his haircut is bad (The way he says it implies he's "been" with that many women). Overall, the movie is very much PG-13, so I'd keep that in mind when considering bringing the young ones.

It's hardly a perfect movie by any means, but Superman is a decent start to the DCU. It's the kind of movie that's made for fans of comic book stories, so there's plenty of fantasy woven throughout the film. It's also most of what you'd expect from a James Gunn movie - content-wise, but also in tone and humor. It's not nearly as silly, at times, as Guardians of the Galaxy, but the random humor that was in those movies does make its way into this one to a degree. This may be the most Marvel-y of all the DC movies thus far (for better or worse), and it is a pretty decent start to a hopeful new world of comic book films.

By the way, there is a post-credits scene at the very, very end. It doesn't tease the next DCU movie at all; it's just a tacked-on gag that is fun, but not at all important to the story. Also, the movie was great on the massive IMAX screen, but the showing I went to was in 3D and, while it had some neat moments in 3D (like Superman flying at the screen or the crystals of the Fortress of Solitude rising out of the ground), it was sometimes more distracting to have the movie in 3D. So while I'd recommend it on IMAX, I wouldn't really recommend it in 3D.